Pakistan’s Taliban reincarnation

The News, April 9. 2005
Endpiece
Pakistan’s Taliban reincarnation

The reincarnation of the Taliban has begun in Pakistan. The events of the last few weeks, in which MMA activists unleashed brutal force against civil liberties and law are proof of this. These are not just random abnormal occurrences, but a forewarning of a dreadful situation developing in Pakistan, especially in the NWFP. These events have confirmed the series of dire predictions about the effects of the Hasba Act and the formation of the Hasba force in the NWFP by the MMA government.

The rise of the unlawful private force of religious zealots has produced a wave of panic among people who had expected that, with "modernisation" on the top of President Musharraf’s agenda, Pakistan would become a more enlightened and less repressive society. Instead, they are witnessing the growth of forces which seek an even more restrictive society, one which forces women back into purdah, uses terror to crush civil rights and free thought, and threatens to inflict the most barbaric punishments on those who defy its edicts. This is a form of fascism, not Islam.

Religious fanatics in the NWFP have such a free hand because of MMA support that opposition members of the provincial assembly are threatened of dire consequences if they oppose the unlawful acts of the fanatics. The opposition leader in the NWFP assembly, Shehzada Mohammad Gushtasip Khan, has himself received death threats. He dared to raise his voice against the MMA’s atrocities and oppression, and against the increasing lawlessness the alliance is promoting in Mansehra district through militants belonging to banned jihadi outfits, as well its own regular activists. Mr Gushtasip has been exposing the unlawful activities of the Mansehra amir of the outlawed Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, so the amir threatened him with death — at a press conference. This is not worrisome for Mr Gushtasip and his family alone; it is a greater source of concern for ordinary people, who are in a far weaker position than the leader of the opposition.

On March 25, MMA-backed militants of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen besieged the district courts in Mansehra over the cancellation of the bail before arrest of one of their local leaders, who subsequently threatened Mr Gushtasip with death. Wielding clubs and iron bars, these militants used malicious language against the judiciary and denounced the presence of woman judges in the Mansehra district courts as "un-Islamic." Surprisingly, the law was not applied against the militants.

The religious militants are against women playing any role outside the home. They stand for ancient laws and traditions that deprive women of their most basic civil rights. They are essentially anti-women. The hooliganism promoted by an MMA MNA against girls’ participation in the Gujranwala marathon is the latest exposure of the terror tactics applied by the religious alliance.

The rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan began in the 1980s. On the one hand, General Zia-ul-Haq used religion to justify his rule, since he was "Islamising" the laws and thereby Pakistani society. On the other, he turned Pakistan into a base for forces opposing the Afghan revolution. Thousands of Pakistani guerrillas entered Afghanistan, and at the same time Pakistan became a corridor for 25,000 militants from other Muslim countries who participated in the US-funded proxy-war in that country. After the end of the Afghan war, the military started using these guerrilla forces to fight a proxy war in Kashmir, which is still going on.

However, the activities of the fanatics did not remain restricted to Kashmir. Since the fanatics are motivated to fight against all "infidels," they have now turned their attention to liberal values in Pakistan, to pose a big challenge to this country’s civil society. They are flexing their muscle with the encouragement of the MMA, which is determined to "Talibanise" Pakistani society.

Should this religious militancy be allowed to continue unchecked? No, it needs to be challenged with determination. The cancer has to be treated now because it can spread further.

The writer is a freelance contributor based in the NWFP

Email: zahid_zeno@yahoo.com